Wicked Lord: Part One by Shirl Anders

him wanted to keep
Christian Blacknall's secret. All the Blacknalls had helped them.
They'd saved Beth. He wondered what she'd seen, and what she'd
think once she had calmer thoughts.
    It appeared to him Lord Trinity had
intimately saved Beth's life. From what? What kind of man could rip
apart a human body like the one he'd seen? Yet now he knew there
were other than men that walked the earth. He worried his fingers
over his temple as his thoughts just made more confusion and less
answers.
    "What leaves you sitting in a chair in the
hall, stepbrother?"
    Adam's body jerked from being startled at
the sudden voice. His gaze leaped upward to see Fanton wearing
pristine eveningwear, standing two feet in front of him. Bloody
hell, how did Fanton get so close to him without him hearing?
    "Fanton," Adam expelled, quickly standing as
he watched Fanton look as though he were barely sniffing the air,
while his gaze latched onto the door behind Adam's back.
    "Who is in there?" Fanton's eyes gleamed
toward the closed door.
    "Where have you been, Fanton?" Adam
demanded, angrily.
    It seemed hard for Fanton to turn his
interest away from the door. "At a whorehouse, if you must know,"
he answered. His voice was a lazy drawl as his black eyes slowly
turned to Adam. "After Lady Ariel couldn't tear her thoughts away
from you or Beth, I became bored and left." Fanton seemed a little
taller or broader … he definitely appeared to have more glossy
perfection about him, as he added snidely, "I tell you, that is why
I never attend society events. They are so trite and
wearisome."
    Adam frowned, barely able to keep from
grinding his teeth. "Were you in the garden tonight, Fanton? At the
ball?"
    Fanton's gaze instantly sharpened. "No,
stepbrother, I cannot think of one reason I would be in the
gardens."
    An outright lie , Adam thought,
because Lady Ariel placed him there at least for a few moments. Why
would Fanton lie if he were not hiding something? Adam decided he
didn't want Fanton to know the full of what had happened that
evening, so he held back.
    "Beth's turned her ankle," he said watching
Fanton's reaction, which oddly turned into a smug look. "The
doctor's been around and she will be fine with some rest."
    "And you've just decided she needs a guard
outside her resting place … in her own home?" After slinging his
barb, Fanton adjusted his tailored evening jacket.
    Bastard. Adam knew Fanton was toying
with him and they both knew it, but neither would reveal themselves
to say it. "It should be obvious I'm here to help her should she
need assistance in the night."
    Fanton frowned with a gleam growing in his
eyes. "You are always such a dutiful brother to little Beth."
    "At least I would never leave her unattended
to an event I'd escorted her to," Adam replied tersely.
    Fanton stepped closer with a new fierce look
on his features, and Adam nearly stepped back with the power he
could feel emanating from him. "Be careful, Adam. It's not wise to
provoke me."
    Adam tensed his posture, attempting glare
for glare. "What's happened to you?" he demanded. "You're not the
same ever since our parents died."
    " Killed themselves, you mean." Fanton
spat the heresy as though he enjoyed the thought and didn't care
his father had died.
    "I'll still never believe that," Adam
responded hotly.
    "You can't believe your mother would
do such a thing? Stab him in the neck," Fanton gloated with a hiss.
"I'm fucking glad he lived long enough to stab her back," he
spat.
    "No!" Adam shouted, and his anger raised his
fist toward Fanton's sneering face. " He killed her!"
    Adam thought he was going to have the rash
opportunity to smash Fanton's face as his fist swung toward it, but
suddenly Fanton's hand was there. Fanton snatched his swinging
fist, stopping the force of his punch as easily as if he were
holding a small child back.
    Impossible, Adam thought, as he
groaned at the crushing pressure Fanton squeezed over his clenched
fist. Fanton pushed with unbelievable